Muses and Manuscripts

On a high note, it has been a few months since my last post and my life has been looking up immensely. I have been spending all my time at work, school, or my two homes (the second home being that of my best friend and Ideal Reader). Thank you for those of you who commented on the last post. The encouragement was appreciated.

I ended up returning to my high school job and my hours have been looking up. Finances is still an issue, yet God has provided and I know he will continue to provide. The summer semester is going well, lots of signing. My writing has been going great, and I even finished a first draft of a project just recently. Even better, however, is that I have sent out my current manuscript to many smaller press publishers and one has shown an encouraging response.

This sudden spike in my writing has unfortunately left me at a loss of what next to apply my efforts to. There is always room to edit old projects and I still have many to choose from if I want something new. My muse simply refuses to tell me which to work on. I have done everything I can to try and prod it into acting up, but fickle as usual, it decides to stay obstinate. With my usual methods not working, I'm led to wonder what exactly it takes to stir a muse or creative impulse into jumping on command. An author I have been following recently on Facebook said that the muse always favors a working writer. Perhaps all I need to establish is a few hours a day dedicated to spitting out pages or set a goal of a certain amount of words. How do other writers make the creative juices flow?

It does help to have my favorite person back in my life. She is doing wonders for my stifled creativity, and ambition for that matter. I have known this girl since we were ten years old and we are still thick as thieves. She has always provided the best balance of confidence and critique on both my work and my life. I could go on about this for pages and pages, but the point is that having a real life muse always helps my writing immensely. Having someone to always rely on for honest feedback is the biggest asset, I think, to professional and budding writers alike. That person may be an editor, an agent, or a best friend, yet they're always needed for success.

So, instead of consulting my inner muse for ideas, perhaps I should consult my outside muse instead. Maybe, on the off chance the inner muse gets jealous, the conversation will spur some ideas.